Stonewall DFL Endorses Matt Entenza for Gov

by: Mark My Words

Tue Jan 05, 2010 at 16:34:39 PM CST

(Nice summary! - promoted by Grace Kelly)

The Stonewall DFL, over 4,000 members, has officially endorsed Matt Entenza for Guv. Now, in case anybody is shocked by that news, I have a better one for ya: The Stonewall Caucus has endorsed Entenza in everything since 1994. No need to be shocked anymore.

Entenza's gratitude towards the GLBT Community was nicely done:

"I am so proud to have earned the endorsement of Stonewall DFL. I am committed to running a campaign and having an administration that reflects the rich diversity of our state. Stonewall DFL stands strong for equal rights - as I always have and always will. They will be an invaluable partner in making Minnesota work again for all Minnesotans."

I'm sure he's had a lot of practice at that, too.

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Charles Carlson Drops out of Minneapolis Ward 2 Race

by: Megan

Mon Mar 02, 2009 at 11:33:12 AM CST

UPDATE: After I posted this I was made aware of the article appearing in the MN Daily today (http://tinyurl.com/bnb9jp) detailing allegations and admissions regarding Charles and pretty serious mental illness. In short, Charles admitted to being diagnosed with a form of Schizophrenia.

There is a lot of stuff in the article ... and honestly a lot of it is mind-blowing. Obviously Charles is a very high-functioning individual.

There is a lot to be written on mental illness and politics. But one thing in this case that concerns me is reports that people are spreading this article around as a reason to mock Charles. And to those who are doing this ... you are ***holes. Regardless of the politics and personal this is clearly a case where compassion is called for.

Yesterday, Sunday, March 1st, Charles Carlson announced that he would be dropping out of the race for City Council in Minneapolis Ward Two, leaving no DFL candidate. He made the announcement at screenings held by the Stonewall DFL Caucus at the Minneapolis Central Library.

At the meeting and in an email to supporters today he cited a new job as a professional tennis judge that would take him out of town too often to be able to run an effective campaign. At the screening he also alluded to various negative posts around the ole Internet and "harassment", although he offered no specifics.

Charles faced many hurdles in his race. One is the relative popularity of the incumbent, Green Party member Cam Gordon, in the Ward, even with DFLer's. According to one prototypical political "hack" there was a brewing plot to actually have 1-2 people run against Charles at the DFL Ward Convention in order to block an endorsement only to have them drop out later. Apparently some of the DFLer's in the area are wishing Gordon would cross over and seek the DFL endorsement.

I have to comment that Charles was very classy in the way he addressed the Stonewall Caucus yesterday. It had to be heartbreaking to call off his campaign after putting so much work in and he could have just phoned to cancel his appointment without anyone thinking less of him. But, he came in, sat down and explained his decision. (This compared with an incumbent Council Member, to be named in another post, who showed up an hour late and offered no explanation or apology as to why.)

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Minneapolis city politics roundup

by: Populista

Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 13:18:15 PM CST

Although the governors race is already well underway the only major elections that will be happening are local ones, the most high profile being the city elections in Minneapolis and the mayoral race in St Paul. Here is some of the biggest recent events in those races.

Stonewall DFL endorsements:

Stonewall DFL (the GLBT rights wing of the DFL) made some endorsements on Minneapolis city races last night. Thanks to DFL superactivist Amanda Tempel here are the endorsements made:

Board of Estimate & Taxation: Sean Broom & Carol Becker

Park Board: Marty Demgen (District 5), Liz Wielinski (District 1), Mary Merrill Anderson (At Large), John Erwin (At Large), Tom Nordyke (At Large) plus incumbents in district 2, district 3, & district 6

City Council: Sandra Colvin Roy (Ward 12), Elizabeth Glidden (Ward 8), Meg Tuthill (Ward 10) and John Quincy (Ward 11) plus incumbents in Wards 3, 6, 7, 9, & 13.

In addition they have yet to make endorsements for mayor and City Council in Wards 1, 2, & 4. The next possible dates for more endorsements are March 1st and 15th. The Minneapolis DFL precinct caucus is on March 3rd. Also as Amanda noted that they have posted the ratings given to each candidate here.

Ward 1 Update:

Back in December I wrote about Minneapolis Ward 1 council member Paul Ostrow's retirement and the race to replace him. Since it's two months later a lot has happened since then so I thought I'd give an update. Now their are three candidates (as far as I can tell) vying for the DFL endorsement: Doron Clark, Jose Velez and Kevin Reich.

Doron Clark:

Clark seems to be the early frontrunner in the race. He's raised twice as much money as other contenders, snagged the endorsement of AFSCME and has by far the strongest online presence.

Jose Velez:

As an aide to Council member Don Samuels he would seem to have an advantage in the race, but so far he's raised less then half of what Clark has, hasn't snagged any major endorsements or gotten an online presence.

Kevin Reich:

Quite honestly I have not heard anything about him in the last two months. He doesn't have any website, hasn't been mentioned in any news articles or blogs since the last time I wrote about the race. He seems to have a fairly strong resume but I have not been able to contact him or find anything about his campaign. If your out there, let us know. The only thing I could find was FairVote listing him as a IRV supporter.

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